218 Impt'oremint in JtHlian Sftf/ananes 



many seedlings, when selfed, which, however, die off at a very early 

 stage. In one case 13 survived out of 4000 in the first year, and a 

 hundred or two out of 10,000 in the second. This would appear to be 

 a varietal character, and two other kinds appear to share this peculiarity. 

 It is, therefore, proposed to pollinate these three, if possible, from other 

 good kinds during the next season on the chance of obtaining a more 

 vigorous lot of seedlings. If we succeed in raising thereby a large number 

 of vigorous seedlings, it may be safely assumed that the bulk of them will 

 be crosses. 



Problem 5. It has been suggested that it may be possible to decide 

 the parentage of seedlings by observing their subsequent habit and 

 growth, but we shall require for this purpose a very complete knowledge 

 of the morphological differences of the parents. The problem of classi- 

 fying the canes thus acquires additional importance. Considerable 

 progress has been made in this direction during the past year and a 

 half. A remarkable number of minute distinguishing characters have 

 been recorded in examining the different canes collected, although this 

 work is still far from complete. A few of these characters may be 

 mentioned here and those interested in the subject are referred to a 

 paper on " The Panjab Canes " about to be published as a Memoir of the 

 Indian Agricultural Department. In this paper a summary of the 

 chief characters studied up to date is given, in order to explain the 

 descriptions of the canes figured. 



The habit of the cane as it strikes the eye appears to be extremely 

 important and characteristic. Its erectness, tillering power, shooting 

 of buds, rooting at aerial nodes, leaf angle and leaf endings, as well as 

 liability to be attacked by certain fungi, form useful determining 

 characters. The joint (made up of a node and the internode above it) 

 varies in thickness, length, shape, number, growth curve (the relative 

 length and thickness in dift'erent parts), ovalness, hardness of rind, 

 quantity of fibre, juiciness, richness and other properties of the juice, 

 colour, waxy bloom and relative development of leaf scar, circlet of 

 hairs, root zone, growth ring, bloom band, etc., in dift'erent varieties. 

 The bud presents important details as to shape, size, mode of bursting, 

 flanges (lateral expansions of basal scales), vestiture in bristles, basal 

 patches of hairs and minute black hairs. The lamina, leaf-sheath and 

 ligule all show similar acts of diagnostic characters, in wliicli various 

 types of hairs play an important part, the leaf-sheath especially pre- 

 senting a surprising number of differences. As a result of this minute 

 morphological examination of the canes, there appears to be some 



